All-optical compare-and-exchange switches

All-optical compare and exchange is experimentally demonstrated using ZnS bistable optical devices. The demonstration utilizes polarization multiplexing and filtering as well as latching and bidirectional logic. The combination of 2-D arrays of compare-and-exchange modules with optical perfect-shuffle interconnections leads to pipelined optical sorting networks that can process large numbers of high-bandwidth signals in parallel. Networks with these characteristics are applicable in telecommunication switches, parallel processor interconnections, and database machines.>